WPXN-TV
Encyclopedia
WPXN-TV, which broadcasts on channel 31 in New York City
, is the flagship station of the Ion Television network
, formerly known as Pax TV and i.
' first municipalities to enter into broadcasting with the 1924 sign-on of WNYC radio
, was granted a commercial television
license in 1952. Nine years later, on November 5, 1961, WUHF took to the air for the first time. Through the Municipal Broadcasting System, which held the channel 31 license, the City (led by then-mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.) used WUHF as an experiment to determine the viability of UHF broadcasts within an urban environment. Some of the early programming on WUHF included educational films and college-level distance learning telecourses and, reportedly, a nightly rundown of the New York City Police Department
's "wanted" criminals list.
After a year of test broadcasting the station became a full-time operation on November 1, 1962, with new call letters WNYC-TV to match its sister radio stations WNYC (then at 830 AM and now at 820 AM) and WNYC-FM (93.9 MHz). Though the channel 31 license was classified as commercial, WNYC-TV was operated as a non-commercial educational
station. Some of the television program
ming from the experimental period continued, and now included live broadcasts of the United Nations
' General Assembly meetings. As a municipally-owned station, WNYC-TV also devoted airtime to shows focused on civic affairs, along with other public-interest programs. The station also carried some programming from National Educational Television
(NET) and its successor, the Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS), but later increasingly ran more independent educational television
programs. For many years, WNYC-TV ran a 15-minute newscast on weekdays, called News From City Hall (later called News City and expanded to 30 minutes), highlighting the day's events in municipal government.
In 1979 the City (under mayor Edward I. Koch
), then under a fiscal crisis, had considered selling the WNYC stations to other interests. Instead, the WNYC Foundation was established as an outlet to raise operating capital for the stations. Though there were bi-annual fundraising
appeals made by the WNYC stations, WNYC-TV did not run on-air pledge drive
s in a manner similar to other PBS stations, mostly because of its commercial license status.
During the 1980s, channel 31 began leasing blocks of airtime to foreign-language broadcasters. Among the largest providers of foreign programming were Japan
's Fujisankei Communications Group
, which aired a morning show on weekdays, and RAI
, the Italian
public broadcaster which broadcast programming two hours on weeknights, and five hours on Sunday mornings, a period which included airings of Italian soccer
games.
Also during this era, WNYC-TV joined the music video
phenomenon—and in the process contributed to the growth of hip hop culture and rap music
. In the summer of 1983 channel 31 premiered the hour-long Video Music Box
(VMB), created by Ralph McDaniels
which started off with an eclectic selection of videos from pop
, rock
, and rhythm-and-blues
artists. Rap music was also included, but eventually the program became exclusive to the rap and R&B genres. Video Music Box served as a launching pad for many rap music artists, and was said to have been the basis behind MTV
creating Yo! MTV Raps
several years later. Video Music Box would remain prominently on WNYC-TV's schedule for the next decade (the show now airs on WNYE-TV
).
won the WNYC-TV auction with a bid of $207 million, which at the time was the largest price ever paid for a UHF television station. The sale of channel 31 to commercial interests had many detractors. Foreign broadcasters complained, as they now found themselves without an outlet for their programming, and individual financial contributors criticized the Giuliani administration for selling the station to the highest commercial bidder, rather than to the WNYC Foundation. The foreign producers found new outlets through WNYE-TV, Newton, New Jersey
-based WMBC-TV
, and the City-owned Crosswalks cable TV network.
The sale took nearly a year to become official, and on Midnight, June 30, 1996, WNYC-TV signed off for the final time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVF7fNZ8-_c. Twelve hours later, at Noon on July 1, channel 31 reappeared as WBIS-TV (branded as S+), carrying programming from the Classic Sports Network
most of the day, and infomercials in overnights. Meanwhile, Dow Jones and ITT worked on their planned permanent format for WBIS, which would offer business news during the day and professional sports news and games at night. The new format would launch in January 1997, with business news from Dow Jones running for twelve hours, starting at 6 a.m.. At 6 p.m., the station began its sports programming. ITT, then co-owners of Madison Square Garden
(and the teams that played in the venue) with Cablevision, offered the team coverage with the New York Knicks
and New York Rangers
, and sports news was provided from Fox Sports Net
. WBIS-TV was also slated to carry some games of the New York Islanders
, New Jersey Devils
, and New Jersey Nets
(all of which aired on Cablevision-owned SportsChannel New York), and in fact did air at least one game from each of the three teams. Some Classic Sports Network programming remained on weekends and on evenings when there was no live sports coverage, and infomercials continued in overnights. There was some talk that WBIS would secure broadcast rights for the New York Yankees
, but that team opted to remain with WPIX
for the 1997 season.
In addition to the Classic Sports programming and Fox Sports News
, WBIS also aired programming from the then-young Outdoor Life Network and Speedvision on weekends. They also aired additional sporting events outside of the New York area teams the station covered, which consisted mostly of Fox Sports Net's national coverage of Big 12 Conference
football, Pacific-10 Conference football and basketball, and FSN's weekly Thursday night baseball coverage (at the time, there was no FSN affiliate in New York).
The WBIS hybrid format, though ambitious, was a complete dud as the station failed to attract both viewers or advertising revenue. In May 1997, ITT sold its share of the station, as well as its half of Madison Square Garden, in an effort to resist a hostile takeover attempt by the Hilton Hotels Corporation
. Dow Jones continued to run the station alone, but within weeks decided it could no longer support the losses and looked to sell out. Paxson Communications, which owned several UHF stations nationwide, purchased WBIS for $225 million, topping the 1995 sale price by $18 million.
The hybrid format was taken off the air in June, though reruns of WBIS' business programming, some Fox Sports programming, and documentaries from the CBS cable presence "Eye On People" ran in the interim. Paxson took control of the station in August, renaming it as WPXN-TV, and ran channel 31 under a local marketing agreement
with a format that featured Bloomberg Business News
in daytime, infomercials (from Paxson's inTV) and religious programs (from Paxson's Worship Network
) the rest of the day. The LMA was necessary as Paxson was seeking FCC
permission to keep both WPXN and WHAI-TV (channel 43) in Bridgeport, Connecticut
. The FCC eventually granted Paxson a temporary waiver for the purchase of WPXN, which closed on March 6, 1998. A year later, Paxson sold the Bridgeport station to other interests.
On August 31, 1998 WPXN, along with the rest of the Paxson stations, premiered the new Pax television network, with a programming mix of infomercials, off-network reruns labeled as "family entertainment", and the Worship Network during overnights. NBC
purchased a 32 percent stake in Pax in 1999, and as part of the deal NBC encouraged its stations, both owned and affiliated, to enter into joint sales agreements with the local Pax outlet. In New York, WNBC-TV did just that with WPXN, and as a result channel 31 aired rebroadcasts of WNBC-TV's evening newscasts. The LMA arrangements ended in July 2005, though NBC retains its ownership share in the network to the present day.
On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of channel 31, as well as six other New York City television stations and several radio stations, were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the World Trade Center
towers. When WPXN-TV returned to the air days later, channel 31 was broadcasting at low power from a temporary facility in West Orange, New Jersey
. It has since moved its transmitter to the Empire State Building
.
In July 2005 Pax TV changed its name to "i", and on January 29, 2007, the network became ION Television. Like most Ion stations, WPXN then ran infomercials until 6 p.m. daily, except for some religious shows on weekday mornings and Sunday mornings, along with some educational shows from qubo
on Friday afternoons, and Ion's collection of mostly-off-network reruns filling the primetime portion of the schedule plus one public affairs
show, ION New York City. Ion Television expanded to begin entertainment programming at 5:00 p.m. weekdays in January 2008. Beginning September 2008 entertainment programs start on weekdays at 4:00 p.m.
, which went silent several years ago due to WWOR-TV
being assigned that channel for their digital signal, and WPXO-LP (channel 34) in East Orange, New Jersey
, which was sold in August 2007, and is now an affiliate of Spanish-language network Caribevision
.
Approximately May 2, 2011: ION Media Networks has signed on WPXU-LD Amityville over VHF Channel 12. This translator station replaces the analog translator which was taken silent after being displaced from UHF Channel 38.
Digital channels>
Channel
Video
Aspect
Programming
31.1
720p
16:9
ION Television
31.2
480i
4:3
Qubo
31.3
480i
4:3
ION Life
WPXN-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 31.2, labelled "WPXN Ion Media", broadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s.
}
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, is the flagship station of the Ion Television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
, formerly known as Pax TV and i.
Municipal ownership
The City of New York, which was one of the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
' first municipalities to enter into broadcasting with the 1924 sign-on of WNYC radio
WNYC
WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
, was granted a commercial television
Commercial Television
Commercial Television was the third free-to-air broadcast television station in Hong Kong. It first went on air in 1975, and ceased transmissions in 1978.-History:...
license in 1952. Nine years later, on November 5, 1961, WUHF took to the air for the first time. Through the Municipal Broadcasting System, which held the channel 31 license, the City (led by then-mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.) used WUHF as an experiment to determine the viability of UHF broadcasts within an urban environment. Some of the early programming on WUHF included educational films and college-level distance learning telecourses and, reportedly, a nightly rundown of the New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
's "wanted" criminals list.
After a year of test broadcasting the station became a full-time operation on November 1, 1962, with new call letters WNYC-TV to match its sister radio stations WNYC (then at 830 AM and now at 820 AM) and WNYC-FM (93.9 MHz). Though the channel 31 license was classified as commercial, WNYC-TV was operated as a non-commercial educational
Non-commercial educational
The term non-commercial educational applies to a radio station or TV station that does not accept on air advertisements , as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission . NCE stations do not pay broadcast license fees for their non-profit uses of the radio spectrum...
station. Some of the television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
ming from the experimental period continued, and now included live broadcasts of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
' General Assembly meetings. As a municipally-owned station, WNYC-TV also devoted airtime to shows focused on civic affairs, along with other public-interest programs. The station also carried some programming from National Educational Television
National Educational Television
National Educational Television was an American non-commercial educational public television network in the United States from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970...
(NET) and its successor, the Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(PBS), but later increasingly ran more independent educational television
Educational television
Educational television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable television in the United States as Public, educational, and government access ...
programs. For many years, WNYC-TV ran a 15-minute newscast on weekdays, called News From City Hall (later called News City and expanded to 30 minutes), highlighting the day's events in municipal government.
Ed Koch
Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...
), then under a fiscal crisis, had considered selling the WNYC stations to other interests. Instead, the WNYC Foundation was established as an outlet to raise operating capital for the stations. Though there were bi-annual fundraising
Fundraising
Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...
appeals made by the WNYC stations, WNYC-TV did not run on-air pledge drive
Pledge drive
A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise a contributor makes to send in funding at regular intervals for a certain amount of time...
s in a manner similar to other PBS stations, mostly because of its commercial license status.
During the 1980s, channel 31 began leasing blocks of airtime to foreign-language broadcasters. Among the largest providers of foreign programming were Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
's Fujisankei Communications Group
Fujisankei Communications Group
, abbreviated FCG, is a keiretsu in Japan. This media conglomerate was founded by Nobutaka Shikanai. In 1991, it was the fourth-largest media company in the world and the largest one in Japan. In the same year, the company's yearly revenue was $5 billion....
, which aired a morning show on weekdays, and RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
, the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
public broadcaster which broadcast programming two hours on weeknights, and five hours on Sunday mornings, a period which included airings of Italian soccer
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
games.
Also during this era, WNYC-TV joined the music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
phenomenon—and in the process contributed to the growth of hip hop culture and rap music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
. In the summer of 1983 channel 31 premiered the hour-long Video Music Box
Video Music Box
Video Music Box was one of the first television programs ever to feature hip hop videos primarily. Created in 1983 by Ralph McDaniels, it was one of the most influential television shows to give urban artists mainstream exposure. It aired on the New York City-owned public television station WNYC-TV...
(VMB), created by Ralph McDaniels
Ralph McDaniels
Ralph “Uncle Ralph” McDaniels is a hip-hop culture pioneer, entrepreneur, and visionary who created Video Music Box, the first music video show focused exclusively to an urban market—broadcast on public television...
which started off with an eclectic selection of videos from pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and rhythm-and-blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
artists. Rap music was also included, but eventually the program became exclusive to the rap and R&B genres. Video Music Box served as a launching pad for many rap music artists, and was said to have been the basis behind MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
creating Yo! MTV Raps
Yo! MTV Raps
Yo! MTV Raps was a two-hour American television music video program, which ran from August 1988 to August 1995 through its original Yo! MTV Raps name and later by Yo! . The program was the first hip hop music show on the network, based on the original MTV Europe show, aired one year earlier. The U.S...
several years later. Video Music Box would remain prominently on WNYC-TV's schedule for the next decade (the show now airs on WNYE-TV
WNYE-TV
WNYE-TV, channel 25 is an non-commercial educational, independent television station located in New York City, USA. WNYE-TV is part of the NYC Media Group and has its studios located in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and transmitter at the Conde Nast Building....
).
Private ownership
In 1995 the City, now under the mayoralty of Rudolph W. Giuliani, decided that the time had come to get out of radio and television broadcasting and were no longer essential as municipal entities. The WNYC radio stations were sold to the WNYC Foundation, while bids were solicited for WNYC-TV. A partnership of Dow Jones and Company and ITTITT Corporation
ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control...
won the WNYC-TV auction with a bid of $207 million, which at the time was the largest price ever paid for a UHF television station. The sale of channel 31 to commercial interests had many detractors. Foreign broadcasters complained, as they now found themselves without an outlet for their programming, and individual financial contributors criticized the Giuliani administration for selling the station to the highest commercial bidder, rather than to the WNYC Foundation. The foreign producers found new outlets through WNYE-TV, Newton, New Jersey
Newton, New Jersey
Newton is a town in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 8,244. It is the county seat of Sussex County....
-based WMBC-TV
WMBC-TV
WMBC-TV, virtual channel 63, is an independent television station licensed to Newton, New Jersey, USA, serving the New York City metropolitan area...
, and the City-owned Crosswalks cable TV network.
The sale took nearly a year to become official, and on Midnight, June 30, 1996, WNYC-TV signed off for the final time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVF7fNZ8-_c. Twelve hours later, at Noon on July 1, channel 31 reappeared as WBIS-TV (branded as S+), carrying programming from the Classic Sports Network
ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic is a sports channel that features reruns of famous sporting events, sports documentaries, and sports themed movies. Such programs includes biographies of famous sports figures or a rerun of a famous World Series or Super Bowl, often with added commentary on the event...
most of the day, and infomercials in overnights. Meanwhile, Dow Jones and ITT worked on their planned permanent format for WBIS, which would offer business news during the day and professional sports news and games at night. The new format would launch in January 1997, with business news from Dow Jones running for twelve hours, starting at 6 a.m.. At 6 p.m., the station began its sports programming. ITT, then co-owners of Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
(and the teams that played in the venue) with Cablevision, offered the team coverage with the New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
and New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
, and sports news was provided from Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports Net
The Fox Sports Regional Networks, or simply Fox Sports Net , are a collection of cable TV regional sports networks in the United States owned and operated by News Corporation.- Beginnings :...
. WBIS-TV was also slated to carry some games of the New York Islanders
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders are a professional ice hockey team based in Uniondale, New York. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
, New Jersey Devils
New Jersey Devils
The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey, United States. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
, and New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
(all of which aired on Cablevision-owned SportsChannel New York), and in fact did air at least one game from each of the three teams. Some Classic Sports Network programming remained on weekends and on evenings when there was no live sports coverage, and infomercials continued in overnights. There was some talk that WBIS would secure broadcast rights for the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
, but that team opted to remain with WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
for the 1997 season.
In addition to the Classic Sports programming and Fox Sports News
Fox Sports News
Fox Sports News is an Australian cable and satellite sports news channel. Owned by Premier Media Group and is the sister channel of Fox Sports.Fox Sports News launched on October 1, 2006. The channel runs live for 19 hours a day, broadcasting sports news...
, WBIS also aired programming from the then-young Outdoor Life Network and Speedvision on weekends. They also aired additional sporting events outside of the New York area teams the station covered, which consisted mostly of Fox Sports Net's national coverage of Big 12 Conference
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of ten schools located in the Central United States, with its headquarters located in Las Colinas, a community in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving...
football, Pacific-10 Conference football and basketball, and FSN's weekly Thursday night baseball coverage (at the time, there was no FSN affiliate in New York).
The WBIS hybrid format, though ambitious, was a complete dud as the station failed to attract both viewers or advertising revenue. In May 1997, ITT sold its share of the station, as well as its half of Madison Square Garden, in an effort to resist a hostile takeover attempt by the Hilton Hotels Corporation
Hilton Hotels Corporation
Hilton Worldwide is a global hospitality company. It is owned by the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm. As of July 2011 Hilton brands encompass 3,750 hotels with over 600,000 rooms in 84 countries...
. Dow Jones continued to run the station alone, but within weeks decided it could no longer support the losses and looked to sell out. Paxson Communications, which owned several UHF stations nationwide, purchased WBIS for $225 million, topping the 1995 sale price by $18 million.
The hybrid format was taken off the air in June, though reruns of WBIS' business programming, some Fox Sports programming, and documentaries from the CBS cable presence "Eye On People" ran in the interim. Paxson took control of the station in August, renaming it as WPXN-TV, and ran channel 31 under a local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
with a format that featured Bloomberg Business News
Bloomberg Television
Bloomberg Television is a 24-hour global network broadcasting business and financial news. It is distributed globally, reaching over 200 million homes worldwide. It is owned and operated by Bloomberg L.P...
in daytime, infomercials (from Paxson's inTV) and religious programs (from Paxson's Worship Network
The Worship Network
The Worship Network, or Worship, is a broadcast television service that provides alternative Christian worship-themed programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week...
) the rest of the day. The LMA was necessary as Paxson was seeking FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
permission to keep both WPXN and WHAI-TV (channel 43) in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
. The FCC eventually granted Paxson a temporary waiver for the purchase of WPXN, which closed on March 6, 1998. A year later, Paxson sold the Bridgeport station to other interests.
On August 31, 1998 WPXN, along with the rest of the Paxson stations, premiered the new Pax television network, with a programming mix of infomercials, off-network reruns labeled as "family entertainment", and the Worship Network during overnights. NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
purchased a 32 percent stake in Pax in 1999, and as part of the deal NBC encouraged its stations, both owned and affiliated, to enter into joint sales agreements with the local Pax outlet. In New York, WNBC-TV did just that with WPXN, and as a result channel 31 aired rebroadcasts of WNBC-TV's evening newscasts. The LMA arrangements ended in July 2005, though NBC retains its ownership share in the network to the present day.
On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of channel 31, as well as six other New York City television stations and several radio stations, were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
towers. When WPXN-TV returned to the air days later, channel 31 was broadcasting at low power from a temporary facility in West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange is a township in central Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 46,207...
. It has since moved its transmitter to the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
.
In July 2005 Pax TV changed its name to "i", and on January 29, 2007, the network became ION Television. Like most Ion stations, WPXN then ran infomercials until 6 p.m. daily, except for some religious shows on weekday mornings and Sunday mornings, along with some educational shows from qubo
Qubo
Qubo is a multi-platform children's television specialty channel endeavor operated as a joint venture between ION Media Networks, NBCUniversal, Nelvana, Scholastic Corporation, and Classic Media...
on Friday afternoons, and Ion's collection of mostly-off-network reruns filling the primetime portion of the schedule plus one public affairs
Public affairs (broadcasting)
Public affairs, a broadcasting industry term, refers to television programs which focuses on matters of politics and public policy. Among commercial broadcasters, such programs are often only to satisfy Federal Communications Commission regulatory expectations and are not scheduled in prime time...
show, ION New York City. Ion Television expanded to begin entertainment programming at 5:00 p.m. weekdays in January 2008. Beginning September 2008 entertainment programs start on weekdays at 4:00 p.m.
Translators
WPXN-TV used to have two translators that rebroadcast its signal on two low-power stations: WPXU-LP (channel 38) in Amityville, New YorkAmityville, New York
Amityville is a village in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. The population was 9,441 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, which went silent several years ago due to WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
being assigned that channel for their digital signal, and WPXO-LP (channel 34) in East Orange, New Jersey
East Orange, New Jersey
East Orange is a city in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the city's population 64,270, making it the state's 20th largest municipality, having dropped 5,554 residents from its population of 69,824 in the 2000 Census, when it was the state's 14th most...
, which was sold in August 2007, and is now an affiliate of Spanish-language network Caribevision
CaribeVisión
CV Network is a Spanish television network in the United States. The network launched in 2007 with owned and operated stations in New York City, Chicago, Miami, and San Juan until November 2009....
.
Approximately May 2, 2011: ION Media Networks has signed on WPXU-LD Amityville over VHF Channel 12. This translator station replaces the analog translator which was taken silent after being displaced from UHF Channel 38.
Digital programming
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
Qubo
Qubo is a multi-platform children's television specialty channel endeavor operated as a joint venture between ION Media Networks, NBCUniversal, Nelvana, Scholastic Corporation, and Classic Media...
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
ION Life
ION Life is a digital television network carried by ION Television affiliates, airing lifestyle programming during the day, and movies in the evening. It was launched February 19, 2007...
WPXN-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 31.2, labelled "WPXN Ion Media", broadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s.
Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 12, 2009, WPXN-TV discontinued regular analog programming on channel 31. The station returned from channel 30 to channel 31.External links
- Ion Television website
- Current, September 3, 1990
- Current, November 25, 1996
- The final signoff of WNYC-TV on YouTube
- The final signoff of WBIS-TV on YouTube
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